Does The Acidic Levels of a Fruit Affect Its Electric Output?

Problem Scenario

Broad Question

How does acidic levels affect the electric output?

Specific Question

Does the acidic levels of a fruit affect its electric output?

Hypothesis

I think the more acidic the fruit is, the more volts the fruit will output.

Graph of Hypothesis

Variables

Independent Variable

Type of fruit used.

Dependent Variable

The output of volts shown on the voltmeter/multimeter.

Variables That Need To Be Controlled

The voltmeter/multimeter, penny, nail, wires, and the recording chart will need to be controlled throughout this experiment.

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

Volts- are a measurement of the voltage of one object, or multiple objects through the use of a voltmeter, or a multimeter.
Voltmeter/Multimeter- a device used to measure volts.
pH level-the acidity of a solution. Based on a negative logarithm of hydrogen ions in a solution
Log-the log/logarithm of a number is the opposite of an exponent.

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General Plan

My plan is to find the acidic levels of each fruit. Then I will see if the more acidic a fruit is the higher or lower the electric output by using a voltmeter/multimeter to determine the volt output.

Potential Problems And Solutions

Fruits being damaged in anyway. Keep away from any potential hazards.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

A nail into a body, a allergic reaction to citrus fruits, or someone swallow penny.

Experimental Design

Number Of Trials

Total of 25; five for each type of fruit.
Lemon, Orange, Apple, Clementine, Pear.

Number Of Subjects In Each trial

5 fruits with five trials each.

When data will be collected

After school at my house.

Number of Observations:

5 per each fruit. I will use the average for the final number of the volts for that fruit.

Where will data be collected?

In my kitchen at my house.

Resources and Budget Table

Data Table

Time Line

Early March- collect supplies
Middle-Late March- preform experiment
Early April- start to record data on Google Docs Spreadsheet
Late April to Early May- start to put poster together
May 4- Present the poster.
May 10-Present at the regional science fair at the Tech Village

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Background Research

My experiment uses many terms that are unfamiliar with people. It uses them because my experiment has complicated terms associated with fruits, and with the multimeter I used to test the electric output with.

A scientific explanation would state that pH refers to the plant's ability to attract hydrogen ions. A less scientific explanation says pH is the acid/alkaline balance. pH Level is a term that many people are not familiar with. pH stands for potential, and Hydrogen. The pH Level is the level of acidity in a solution. It is determined by the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution by using a formula. Shown as below

aH+ is the activity of hydrogen ions

It is easier by using just pH paper that determines the acidic levels by rubbing the object on the paper. The paper then tells you the acidity by changing color to match how acidic it is. White to red means the object is neutral to very acidic. White to blue means it is neutral to alkaline. Simply put, the pH Level is how "sour" something is. Lemons have an acidic content making them "sour" to people eating the lemon. An apple has an almost neutral acidic content. To people eating it, some apples are slightly sour, but not as much as the lemon.

People know volts as a measurement of electricity. Though it is a measurement of an electric current, it is more precisely the difference of potential that would carry one amp of current against one ohm of resistance. There are many kinds of electric measuring terms. Amps, ohms, volts are the most common electrical measurements.

A logarithmic scale is a scale on which actual distances from the origin are proportional to the logarithms of the corresponding scale numbers. This is
like a Richter scale. Both of them are calculated by using a logarithm. A logarithm is the opposite of an exponent. log10(1000)=3. This is one of the most common logarithms. A logarithmic scale is a hard concept to understand. In the example log10(1000)=3 , the log 10 of 1000=3, really means that 10 raised to the third power is 1000. A simplified version is 10X10X10=1000. Thus the 10 and 3 in the equation.

These terms may not be completely known by the average human. pH level is important in my experiment since I'm testing how it affects an electrical output.Volts are important too, because I'm measuring the electrical output in volts. Last is the important logarithmic scale. This scale is how the pH level is calculated using calculus. All of these terms are necessary for understanding what my project is about.

PH Level chart

References

"PH." Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation, 03 June 2012. Web. 09 Mar. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH>.

Web. 16 Mar. 2012<http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/184ph.html>.

"Lab Key - Determining the PH of a Solution." Crescent Public Schools. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. <http://crescentok.com/staff/jaskew/ISR/chemistry/pHkey.htm>.

Detailed Procedure

1. I took a fruit and put it on my counter.
2. I then put a 1987 American penny in one end of the fruit, and a stainless steel galvanized 1inch nail in the other end.
3. I hooked up a positive wire to the nail and a negative wire to the penny.
4. I connected the positive wire to the black slot, and the negative wire to the red slot on the multimeter.
5. I read volt output on screen, and recorded it on the chart
6. Repeat this procedure with other fruits.
7. After all the data is on the chart, find the means of each fruit type. That is the final number of the the different fruit outputs.

Photo List

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Results

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Data Analysis

My data stated the more alkaline a fruit is, the better it will conduct electricity. It got proved this way from the tests I did with fruits with all different acidic levels, except with apple and pear which had the same acidic levels. Lemon being the highest in acidic levels produced the lowest volts with 528/2000VDC.
Pear being the lowest in acidity produced the most volts with 947/2000VDC.

Conclusion

The higher the PH level, the more volts are produced.

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Discussion

Each fruit has a distinct trend to them. With each fruit, their voltage output was relevant to their acidity. I have found out the higher the acidity of the fruit, the less volts it produced. This was the exact opposite of my hypothesis. The less acidic a fruit is, the more volts the fruit will produce. By changing the independent variable(the fruit), it changed the dependent variable(volts). By changing the type of fruit, the amount of volts also changed and became higher or lower depending on the fruits acidic level. Because the lemon had the "lowest" pH level, it produced the least amount of volts. With this experiment, my scientific question was answered. I tested and proved that the acidic levels of a fruit does affect their volt output.

Benefit to Community and/or Science

This experiment may not be really useful to any scientist, but to the average human. This experiment may help people produce enough volts to power a small LED. A fun thing to do with a fruit battery is to use them to light up small LED's. If a person knows what fruit is easiest to light a LED up, they will buy that fruit to light the LED up, and they will also save money.

Abstract

My question is "Does the acidic levels of a fruit affect its electrical output?" It is hypothesized that the more acidic the fruit is, the more volts the fruit will produce. The pH level is the measure of acidity in an object. It is determined by the number of hydrogen ions in a solution(Usually pH levels are used in testing fluids or soil content). My procedure is very straight forward. I took a fruit and put it on my counter. I then put a 1987 American penny in one end of the fruit, and a stainless steel galvanized 1inch nail in the other end. I then hooked up a positive wire to the nail and a negative wire to the penny. I then connected the positive wire to the black slot, and the negative wire to the red slot on the multimeter. With each sets of data, I used 2000VDC to measure the volt output. Because all of the same fruits might have a different mass, volume, etc, I averaged the volts to be the final number for each fruit.

I concluded that the higher the PH level, the more volts are produced. Each fruit has a distinct trend to them. With each fruit, their voltage output was relevant to their acidity. I have found out the higher the acidity of the fruit, the less volts it produced. This was the exact opposite of my hypothesis. The less acidic a fruit is, the more volts the fruit will produce. By changing the independent variable(the fruit), it changed the dependent variable(volts). By changing the type of fruit, the amount of volts also changed and became higher or lower depending on the fruits acidic level. Because the lemon had the "lowest" pH level, it produced the least amount of volts. With this experiment, my scientific question was answered. I tested and proved that the acidic levels of a fruit does affect their volt output.